by Nina Levine
“Damn you, just…. I want to feel you!”
“You will.” A roughened laugh broke through his raw throat. A finger stroked over her thigh. “What’s wrong? Does it ache?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He forced her onto her knees, facing away from him, capturing her hands behind her back. The movement forced her wings together, the thin wires cutting into her arms. Sera bit her lip, but she couldn’t, for the life of her, have complained.
“Do you see her?” she whispered.
His hands paused. “Who?”
“The woman you loved.”
Such stillness. It wasn’t that of a creature caught by surprise. No, this had more to do with a jungle cat stalking its prey. Trying to decide whether to play her games, or tear her throat out for daring.
“You said you’d let me be her,” she whispered. “Is this what you want of her? One night. Just one night. And you can do anything you like to her.”
Those words finally set him back into motion.
Azazel captured a fistful of her hair and bent her back, until her spine was arching obscenely. “A dangerous request, little angel. Because if I had her for one night only, then I would ruin her.”
She felt the wetness between her thighs, the intolerable ache. Maybe it was punishment she sought, because she wanted to make the rest of her ache as much as her heart had.
“Then ruin me,” she gasped. “Punish me. Make me scream. Make me beg.”
Hard fingers drove into her from behind.
Sera cried out as she felt them penetrate her to the knuckle. Forbidden fantasies stormed to life; everything she’d ever pictured as she slipped beneath her blankets and slid her hands beneath her waistband.
“You’re so fucking tight,” he whispered, and then he was curling those fingers within her, finding just the right pressure spot.
She saw stars.
Curling his palm around her from behind, he eased those fingers back and forth, stroking her, stealing a gasp from her lips. Animal need broke through her. His knees pushed between hers, spreading her wider. Exposed to everything. Cool air slicked her skin, but it was the sensation of those fingers working within her, stretching her, filling her….
Again he brushed that spot.
And then his fingers were slipping free, taking her own wetness and smearing it all around her clit. In a second, his touch went from light and torturous, to firm and ruining.
“That’s it,” he whispered.
They filled her again.
Breaking back and forth. Leaving her empty and writhing, or filling her to the hilt.
“Please…. Please….”
His cock slid between her thighs, as he returned to tracing her clit. Sera couldn’t stop herself from stilling. It was a threat. A promise. She wanted him inside her, but she’d seen the length and girth of him. It would hurt. First time always did, they said.
Her nipples hardened. She wanted to be owned by him. She wanted that pain, that promise, that pleasure….
The thought pushed her over the edge.
Orgasm blew through her like a storm, wild and electric.
And for the first time in her life, it came from someone else’s fingers.
“Hell, you’re so fucking sensitive.” He bit at her shoulder and Sera cried out as the sensation unleashed another cascade of pleasure within her.
One hand curled around her throat, drawing her back into his embrace. Her wings were crushed between them, the thin wire points digging into her thighs. It hurt. It felt like jagged little lightning bolts beneath her skin.
“You’re such a filthy fucking liar,” he whispered in her ear. “An innocent face and a merciless heart. You want this?”
Something hard and brutish found her from behind, and he teased her with the tip of his cock, stroking through her slick folds.
Sera bit her lip. This body came with its own frustrations. She was no longer an angel, no longer wrapped in her Grace; so powerful, and somehow insulating. She could feel everything now. Lust. Desire. Fear. Pain.
But the longing had never changed.
“Yes,” she cried, as he breached her.
Just an inch. Not enough.
But for virgin territory, it was new and dangerous, and driving her mad.
“Lie to me,” he breathed, his fingers firming on her chin and forcing her to arch. “Tell me you love me.”
“I loved you.”
Growling deep in his throat, he locked his other arm around her waist, and then he was drawing her back down, forcing her hips to arch back until his cock was impaling her. Her wings were trapped between his chest and her back. “This is what you get for telling lies.”
Hauling her back, he forced her to sink down, down, until her ass met his thighs. Sera cried out as he filled her to the hilt. Her thighs trembled, the muscles in her groin flexing to take her weight. She could barely breathe. He was huge. Enormous. Filling her from the inside out, and she wasn’t sure if she’d have to cry mercy after all. Pain lit through her like wildfire. Or maybe pleasure. It was a fine line.
One hand pinned her throat, the other slid from her waist, firming around her breast. Fingers found her nipple and pinched, and then she was arching back, moaning again.
It was wrong.
So wrong.
Then that treacherous hand was sliding lower, spreading her wide, his fingertip fluttering lightly against her clit.
“Come for me,” he whispered in her ear. “You can’t fake that. You can’t lie here. Ride it. Fuck my fingers.”
Somehow she forced her hips to move, an obscene glide. Locked in place against his chest, barely able to undulate. Pleasure sparked with every grind against those fingers. But so did frustration. She couldn’t get close enough. She could feel it flickering within her, a firefly of heat, trying desperately to ignite.
He withdrew his hand and slapped her there, the shock of it ricocheting through her. “I said come.”
Fingers speared through her wet folds, and when he touched her there again, it was like he pulled the trigger.
She couldn’t stop herself. She couldn’t hold herself together. She was soaring again. Flying. Arching her spine and reaching behind her to clasp the back of his neck, her nails digging in as his brutish cock found that sweet spot inside her, and sent her spinning off orbit. He ground within her with torturous slowness, riding her through orgasm. She half turned her face. His lips were so close. She wanted them on hers, wanted to steal some part of himself in this moment, and not just his body….
“I don’t think so.”
A hard hand between her shoulder blades forced her down, onto her hands and knees. Sera screamed as he drove within her again. The angle was deeper, harder. She couldn’t think.
There was no mercy in this moment.
Only fury and pleasure, knotted tight around each other.
“All that chastity.” Azazel drove her forward, capturing a fistful of her hair again. “All of that purity. You reek of it. Lie to me. Lie to me.”
“I love you,” she gasped.
He ground her cheek into the silk sheets, thighs slamming against hers.
It was too much. Not enough.
She couldn’t catch her breath, could hardly find purchase with her arms bound behind her. It felt as though he was piledriving into her, his cock searching for her very heart.
“I love you.” Tears burst into her eyes as her body clenched around his. “I’ll never stop loving you. Never. I promise on my soul.”
His thrusts slowed. Hard fingers curled in the flesh of her hip, and then he was gasping, jerking within her.
A growl of need traced shivers down her spine, and then Azazel finally collapsed over her.
“You lie so sweetly, I almost believe you,” he whispered, fingers brushing back and forth over her thigh. A laugh tore from his throat. “Indeed, you’re doing such a good job, I could almost believe you were her.”
6
The blood was the problem.
>
It slicked her thighs, drying sticky between them. Sera tried to drag the sheets up to hide it, but he caught her wrist, his expression freezing when he saw the mess there.
Azazel’s heated stare cut right through her.
“You were a virgin.” He said it the same way one would say “there’s a tiger on the lawn.” Slightly shocked. A little unbelieving. Lashed with traces of denial.
Sera gave a shaky laugh, jerking her hand free and finally yanking the sheets into place. “I told you…. I was waiting for you.”
This time when his eyes narrowed, it wasn’t because he didn’t believe her. No. He was picking his way through the words, trying to pinpoint the truth.
Because it felt like truth—the words rang like a crystal bell—and yet, even as he shook his head she could see that he didn’t want to believe it.
“You are a mystery,” he said. And then he pushed to his feet, the sleek glide of olive skin riding over those long, lean muscles. “Stay here.”
He disappeared into the bathroom.
Sera collapsed back on the bed, grinding the heels of her palms against her eyes. He’d let her remove the wings, but her stockings were still caught around her thighs. She was almost afraid to let her breath burst from her, as if the dream would collapse around her.
Her skin held the memory of every moment of that encounter.
It had been rough. Raw. Mind-blowing.
She didn’t know what to think, except that the connection that had always lurked between them was still there.
Only… he would never let her unearth it.
A tap turned, somewhere in the bathroom. Sera rolled onto her side and stared at the door, wincing a little as a gush of seed flooded from her body. What was she meant to—?
The door opened, Azazel’s body highlighted in stark relief against the lights within.
Her breath caught once again, because he was beautiful.
Hauntingly beautiful.
And so damned untouchable she could barely think.
“Here.” He knelt on the bed and drew the sheets back, despite her sudden rush to rescue them.
“What are you—?” Her voice squeaked out as the warm washcloth in his hand traced between her thighs.
No, he was not.
He was.
He cleaned her tenderly, even as she pressed her hands over her face to try and hide her utter mortification. The washcloth left her skin, and then his breath stirred between her thighs and he kissed her there. Gently.
Sera tore her hands down as he looked up. His expression in that moment was unguarded. Not quite as unreachable as she would have suspected.
“None of this makes any sense,” he told her, slipping under the sheets and hauling her back into his arms. “Least of all that. You were a virgin.”
His tone said, explain.
“It’s complicated.”
“Everything about you is,” he said, and the mockery in his voice was aimed entirely at himself. A hand slid down over the curve of her hips. “But try to explain.”
“Okay, fine.” She shivered in his arms. “I was a virgin.”
“A rarity in this day and age. Saving yourself for someone?” He kissed the edge of her shoulder, teeth scraping there.
“Yes.” A little gasp worked its way loose. Surely he wasn’t—
He was.
His hand slipped between her thighs again, gentle and curious. “And yet, you gave yourself to me. Tell me about him.”
“I loved him.” Those fingers were circling her clit like a pack of hungry wolves. They stilled momentarily at the words, then resumed. “I loved him more than anything. But we couldn’t be. We were torn apart. He chose… his path. I chose mine. I’ve never….” She gasped again. “I’ve never wanted another.”
“Until me.”
Sera bit her lip as a dangerous mouth traced the smooth muscle of her shoulder. This was the velvet glove, but there was still steel inside that glove. She knew what he was doing. “Until you.”
“You gave your innocence to a demon,” he whispered, his fingers dipping inside her. “Does it make you feel dirty? Did you think it would assuage your guilt?”
“No.” She turned and glanced over her shoulder. “Maybe I wanted to pretend too?”
There was a look in his eyes that she’d never seen before.
He was troubled.
And not by the thought that she’d replaced him in her head with some imaginary lover.
If he only knew the truth….
Sera rolled and slid her hand through his hair. He caught her hips, but he allowed the kiss as she hauled his face down to hers.
“Let me pretend you’re my love,” she whispered, stealing little pieces of his soul with each punctuating kiss.
“And what would you do if I was?”
“This,” she said, pushing him flat onto his back and straddling him.
She leaned down and kissed him again, as lazy hands stroked up and down her spine. Sera ground herself along that hard, rippled ridge between them. The caress of several piercings almost made her come.
“I would make love to him,” she said, biting his bottom lip. She clasped her fingers through his. “I would promise him forever.”
“More lies.” But he tilted his head back, yielding his throat to her. “I’m surprised you don’t choke on them.”
A little nudge, and then he was breaching her again. But this time, it was up to her how far they took this.
Sera drew his hands up, placing them on her breasts. Darting a hand between them, she tried to fit him inside her.
He cursed under his breath, and stole a hand from her breasts, wrapping it around the base of his cock. “Like this.”
And then she was sinking down, aching muscles stretching to envelope him. It hurt a little. She hadn’t thought it would.
Azazel didn’t take his eyes off her the whole time.
Sera shuddered. From this angle, she could feel those piercings riding over something inside her. Pain melted into pleasure. It softened her, left her vulnerable. She rode him with soft, slow rolls of her hips, her fingernails digging into his chest.
He curled a hand around her neck, and hauled her mouth down to his. “Tell me more,” he breathed, as he stole a kiss from her lips. “Maybe we’ll both believe it for a moment.”
A knock came at the door.
Sera blinked awake, but Azazel moved first, slipping from the sheets and striding across the floor, careless of his nakedness.
The glint of morning light peaked under the curtains. She dragged the sheets up to hide herself, trying to catch a glimpse of who was at the door. The rumble of voices was too low for her to hear anything.
And then Azazel was back, bending low to steal her breath with another heated kiss.
“Stay here,” he whispered, caressing her face. “I have to see to something, but I promise that we’re not done here.” His voice roughened, the pad of his thumb digging into her cheek. “Don’t leave this bed. Don’t get dressed. I plan on having you again when I return.”
“Did something happen?”
“Nothing that concerns you.”
And then he was gone.
The door clicked shut behind him.
Sera moaned into the sheets, finally letting go of everything she’d been holding within her. She’d survived. And now she was right where she wanted to be, but the worst thing was, a part of her didn’t want to leave this bed.
“Tay?” she whispered. “Still there?”
It took a while. Tay had well and truly shut the wormhole behind her, and it took several mentions of her name to catch the technowitch’s attention.
“Hey, girlfriend.” The words were tentative, filled with concern. “How you doing?”
Sera sat up, wincing a little as all the new aches in her body made themselves known. She was naked, bruised, and in Azazel’s bed. She knew how this looked.
“Well, they don’t call him the Prince of Ruin for nothing.” She tried to brea
the a laugh to cut the tension.
“Sera?”
“I’m fine. Maybe….” Sera bit her lip. It wasn’t the sort of thing you admitted, but she had no one else. Tay was her backup, her bestie. She wouldn’t go running to Uriel with this. “Maybe better than fine, if you know what I mean?”
“Your choice?”
“My choice.” And one she’d made the second she walked into the club.
It would be easy to hide behind the mission. I will do whatever I have to do to get the shard of Michael’s sword back. But that only made the lie in her heart ache fiercely.
You loved him. Once.
You wanted this to happen.
You needed it to happen.
And now it had and she could walk out of here with all the demons of her past—ha, ha—laid to rest.
But she needed to move.
He wouldn’t be gone forever, and if he returned, then who knew how long he’d keep her here.
“Comms and video out?”
There was a little buzz of magic sinking through her as Tay sent out a surge. “Nothing to take out. Guess the prince likes to keep his pleasures private.”
That didn’t sound like the demon who’d fucked his way through half of New Purgatory’s population.
“Alright. Give me what you’ve got,” she said. “Anything here? The shard in the gallery is a fake, which means he’s keeping it elsewhere.”
“Maybe it was never real in the first place?”
“It’s real. He’s got it. But he knows someone else wants it too, which is what this entire fucking setup is about. And I think someone just crashed the party, which is why he had to leave so abruptly.”
“Give me a minute,” Tay replied. “I’ll see if I can hack into the main comms and see what’s happening.”
But who was he trying to trap?
There were two other ruling princes of Hell in the city—Samael and Astaroth. Each ruled their own quadrant and there was a treaty in place to keep the city from spilling over into war.
Did he… did he know Uriel was here?
Uriel was the one she’d run to when Azazel had first offered to steal her away from Heaven. Her heart had been filled with so many doubts, and she’d wanted to find some way to save him. Instead, she’d thrown him to the wolves.